THE HALFWAY PUNDIT

Torture: Black & white not gray: We saw it then looked away. We denied it then admitted it. We said it worked. We made it policy. It is illegal, unlawful, and a war crime. Waterboarding is torture, and torture doesn't work.

Trump to issue
more or less a “blanket pardon” to U.S. service members for war crimes (e.g., those
either under investigation, prosecuted, tired, or in some cases convicted and
serving prison time, thus more or less shows Trump is condoning war crimes).

And, also from
various other sources – do the research. Start with this from the My Lai Massacre in
Vietnam in early 1968, and then the torture and other abuses in Iraq at
Abu Ghraib U.S. detention facility during the 2003-2006 time frame.

My 2 cents: My personal view is that is very bad decision and
potentially will trigger an international outrage and set an awful precedence for years to come.

It is also possibly another gross
abuse of presidential pardon power for political purposes (e.g., Trump’s reelection
in 2020).

Just imagine if something like this were implemented
in 1947 following the Nuremberg trials and the “Nazi's Excuse: We Were Just Following Orders”
defense.

Noteworthy: The father at 71, is the oldest prisoner at Gitmo where he
has been held since 2004.

He has never had a chance to see the full extent of
what he has been accused of, let alone properly defend himself in court.

He has
not been tried by a military commission, but nor has he been cleared for
release by a review board.

DOD personnel say: “There are no charges against him at this time. We cannot speculate
about his future.”

His son, Uzair Paracha (also pictured above), and now age 38, is currently
in a in a New York prison some 1,432 miles away. He is serving a 30-year prison
sentence on charges of providing material support for terrorism by helping an
al-Qaida member.

Back in Pakistan, their family
have become pariahs, abandoned by all but a tiny circle of friends and
relatives. Both father and son insist they are innocent, claiming that they did
not realize that the men they were helping were al-Qaida operatives, since
those men had assumed false identities.

In separate interrogations,
the alleged al-Qaida members they are accused of helping have said the same
thing, claiming that the Parachas had no knowledge of who they were involved
with.

Now for 15 years, father and son
have been held in different spheres of the U.S. justice system, bound by the
allegations against them but no justice according to U.S. standards.

They like other long-term
detainees are called “Guantánamo’s Forever
Prisoners” have receded from public consciousness.

Even in Pakistan, they have
been largely forgotten, except as a rarely mentioned cautionary tale of how
urbane, educated men could be involved in militancy. It is almost as if, having
disappeared into U.S. prisons, father and son ceased to exist as anything but a
statistic of the war on terror, forever labelled as terrorists.

But that convenient narrative ignores one basic
question: Did they even commit a
crime such as the yet unproven allegation of aiding al-Qaida. That question
still has not been answered all these years.

My 2 cents: I will not attempt in any fashion to support or
defend either father or son if they are truly guilty as alleged, but not having
been tried and convicted that becomes problematic.

This example is a stain on the whole detainee “Justice under law concept”
that we Americans cherish.

They should be properly charged and tried – 15 years waiting without
due process and justice for them or our country is indeed a black eye on our
military justice system. We would never hold a man in detention for 15 years
with only allegations hanging over him without due process.

There are currently 40 war on terror detainees being
held at the Naval base at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (Gitmo), down from a high of 677 inmates in 2003, under Geo. W.
Bush’s watch.

Trump has said he wants to keep Guantanamo open to ensure the
government has “all necessary power to detain terrorists, wherever we chase
them down, wherever we find them.” However, the facility hasn’t received a
single new prisoner since Trump took office.

Regardless of the size of the
inmate population, the Geneva
Conventions require that detainees “receive mental and
intellectual stimulation” while they’re there.

The
Pentagon notes that it provides access to satellite TV, indoor and
outdoor recreation, a library, and detainees can choose from nearly
300 video games, split about 60/40 between PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS
titles.

They also take classes, in a
variety of subjects — e.g., offered by Global
Dimensions LLC a veteran-owned defense contractor based in Fredericksburg, VA.

Global Dimensions CEO Chris
Newton did not respond to a request for a comment on the new contract, nor did
the two Navy contracting officers overseeing the program. Global Dimensions
“shall develop the curriculum, furnish instruction materials, and instruct
seminars to detainees on a variety of subjects,” the original solicitation issued
by the Navy explains. Those subjects will include literacy, art, life
skills/general education, nutrition, and horticulture.

Instructors will need to be
fluent in Arabic and/or Pashto, as well as English. They will also have to be
male — “due to cultural and religious considerations,” the contract statement
of work (SOW) for the solicitation specifies.

Also, inmates “shall be
restrained, and guards will be present at all times within the classroom.” Note:
The Navy says: “There have not been any incidents of assault on an instructor
by the detainees.”

Monday, October 8, 2018

U.S. Transfers First
Guantánamo Detainee Under Trump, Who Vowed to Fill It

WASHINGTON(NY
TIMES)– May 6, 2018: The Pentagon has
transferred one Guantánamo Bay detainee (prisoner) to the custody of Saudi
Arabia. The handoff is the first detainee who has left Gitmo under Trump, the
candidate who once vowed to fill it back up but has now instead overseen a
reduction in its population.

Reminder of that aspect and showing the difference
between Obama and Trump, in part here from
NPR(November 14, 2016):

Obama all along has promised
to close Gitmo, even since his second day in office back in 2009, and he
repeated that pledge again in February 2016, saying as before: “I'm
absolutely committed to closing the detention facility at Guantanamo.”

Meanwhile at a campaign
rally in Sparks, NV (on that same day), Trump was promising just the opposite
telling the crowd: “This morning, I watched President Obama
talking about Gitmo, right, Guantanamo Bay, which by the way, which by the way,
we are keeping open. Which we are keeping open ... and we're gonna load it up
with some bad dudes, believe me, we're gonna load it up.”

Ben Wittes, Editor of the national
security blog Lawfare wrote: “You have to ask the
question, with whom, because the U.S. is not fighting ground wars and taking
prisoners like it once did.”

Wittes also wondered how Trump expects
to load up Guantanamo with bad dudes, saying: “Trump's stated
military strategy and ambition are so hard to figure out that it's not at all
clear to me what the captive population that would be subject to being moved to
Guantanamo is, who they would be or where they would come from.”

Noteworthy:If it were up to Trump, suspects
might actually come from the United States just like when he was asked that summer
by the Miami Herald if Americans accused of terrorism should be tried
by military commissions in Guantanamo, Trump quickly endorsed such a policy.

Trump said in part then: “I
know that they want to try them in our regular court systems, and I don't like
that at all. I don't like that at all. I would say they could be tried there,
that'll be fine.”

Memo for
Mr. Trump:Under current U.S. law,
American citizens cannot, in fact, be held in Guantanamo, much less tried
there.

Proponents
for closing Guantanamo are demanding that Obama fulfill his promise before
Trump takes over on January 20, 2017.

At least one online video counted down
the days Obama had left in office that featured a new anthem with the refrain:
“Close Guantanamo, Close Guantanamo.”
It didn’t work, however.

American
officials intend for him to serve the roughly nine years remaining in a 13-year
sentence he received after pleading guilty before a military commission to
terrorism-related offenses involving a 2002 al-Qaeda attack on a
French-flagged oil tanker off Yemen’s coast.

Al-Darbi said in a prepared statement
from his volunteer lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University
of New York: “My words will not do justice to what I lived
through in these years and to the men I leave behind in prison. No one should
remain at Guantánamo without a trial. There is no justice in that.”

Al-Darbi’s departure leaves 40 detainees still at
Guantánamo, down from 41 when Obama left office. The transfer comes as the
Trump administration has been struggling to fulfill Trump’s strong desire (and now his official order) to back up his
chest-thumping campaign rhetoric about filling Guantánamo with “bad dudes” and
keeping it open – that even as counterterrorism and security professionals, including Sec. Def. Jim Mattis have all
repeatedly argued that other approaches made more practical sense.

Sen. McCain’s last message to the public just before he died, Saturday,
August 18, 2018 at his home in Arizona: R.I.P. John S. McCain.

His entire statement – his very last from CNBC.com (and at various others sites as well.

“My fellow Americans, whom I
have gratefully served for sixty years, and especially my fellow Arizonans,
thank you for the privilege of serving you and for the rewarding life that
service in uniform and in public office has allowed me to lead. I have tried to
serve our country honorably. I have made mistakes, but I hope my love for
America will be weighed favorably against them.”

“I have often observed that I
am the luckiest person on earth. I feel that way even now as I prepare for the
end of my life. I have loved my life, all of it. I have had experiences,
adventures and friendships enough for ten satisfying lives, and I am so
thankful. Like most people, I have regrets. But I would not trade a day of my
life, in good or bad times, for the best day of anyone else’s.”

“I owe that satisfaction to
the love of my family. No man ever had a more loving wife or children he was
prouder of than I am of mine. And I owe it to America. To be connected to
America’s causes — liberty, equal justice, respect for the dignity of all
people — brings happiness more sublime than life’s fleeting pleasures. Our
identities and sense of worth are not circumscribed but enlarged by serving
good causes bigger than ourselves.”

“Fellow Americans” — that
association has meant more to me than any other. I lived and died a proud
American. We are citizens of the world’s greatest republic, a nation of ideals,
not blood and soil. We are blessed and are a blessing to humanity when we
uphold and advance those ideals at home and in the world. We have helped
liberate more people from tyranny and poverty than ever before in history. We
have acquired great wealth and power in the process.”

“We weaken our greatness when
we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and
hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide
behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our
ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have
always been.”

“We are 325 million opinionated,
vociferous individuals. We argue and compete and sometimes even vilify each
other in our raucous public debates. But we have always had so
much more in common with each other than in disagreement. If only we remember
that and give each other the benefit of the presumption that we all love our
country we will get through these challenging times. We will come through them
stronger than before. We always do.”

“Ten years ago, I had the privilege to
concede defeat in the election for president. I want to end my farewell to you
with the heartfelt faith in Americans that I felt so powerfully that evening. I
feel it powerfully still.”

“Do not despair of our
present difficulties but believe always in the promise and greatness of
America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never
surrender. We never hide from history. We make history. Farewell, fellow Americans.
God bless you, and God bless America.”

My 2 cents: Now the article from Sen. McCain relating to his personal experience with torture (as a POW in NVN) –
worth reading – enjoy.

WASHINGTON (May 2, 2018) — The Pentagon has transferred a Guantánamo Bay prisoner to the custody of Saudi Arabia. The handoff is the first time a detainee has left the wartime prison under Trump, who vowed to fill it back up but has now instead overseen a reduction in its population (see video clip above).

Astonishing appearance
from Richard Bruce Cheney, former Vice President of the United States and of
course, as always on FOX from
Media Matters, here in part with a 4-minute video posted by FOX on Youtube below as a way of introduction:

Historical Background: The
torture program set up by the George W. Bush administration in the aftermath of
the September 11 attacks was a brutal, illegal, and slipshod travesty for which
there has
been no reckoning.

All of the people who designed, implemented, and
justified the brutal and useless interrogations of terrorism detainees have
successfully ducked accountability for a variety of reasons: (1) Republicans actively
support torture; (2) the Democrats voluntarily
abandoned their opportunity to impose accountability for the program, and
both parties are apt to excuse flagrant abuses committed in the name of
national security.

This is why we have the grim spectacle of President
Donald Trump (whose stated position on torture is that it should
be used as sadistic punishment) nominating as CIA director Gina Haspel, who
oversaw the torture of detainees and later led the effort to destroy videotaped
evidence of interrogations.

It’s also why the former Vice President can go on
cable news and give lie-filled defenses of the horrific interrogation program
he shepherded into existence.

Cheney oozed
out a series of falsehoods about his torture program – lies that elicited
precisely zero challenges from Bartiromo as seen in the video above.

Note: The whole
story continues at the Media Matters story linked above and is chocked full of Cheney’s many and misleading
claims and outright BS defense of his shameful legacy and this awful black mark
on America’s values and honor.

My take away thus far on her nomination: She may have supported and run
the programs of torture, but who in the CIA was against it? I’d like to know
and here from them.

Torture (the so-called enhanced interrogation program) is simply a buzzword
for torture and yes, waterboarding is torture and a war crime. It has been classified
as torture for centuries and more currently by the U.S. and UN and Geneva Convention
Articles on Torture (International rules for decades and which the U.S. agreed
and signed onto).

Senate
Republican leaders and White House officials are confident they will be able to
confirm Gina Haspel to lead the CIA by the end of the month, barring any
explosive revelation at her confirmation hearing this week. The Republicans
believe they can get a handful of other Democrats to push Haspel across the
finish line to get the 50 votes needed to confirm her.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is considered
highly likely to support her. He is a moderate up for reelection this year and he posed
for a photo alongside Haspel after a private meeting and he later said:
“Appreciated it so much, Gina coming and speaking with me.”

Sen. Tom “Hates the Iran Nuke Deal”
Cotton (R-AR) said: “Gina
Haspel will be voted out of the Intelligence Committee on a bipartisan basis
and she will be confirmed by the full Senate on a bipartisan basis. I hope that
will happen, and will happen before Memorial Day so she can get down to the
serious business at hand.

Sticking points that should stick, and
rightly so, but may not stick:

·Haspel faces tough
questions over her role in overseeing the use of harsh interrogation the
“so-called enhanced techniques that included waterboarding.

·And then she
supervised the destruction of videotapes documenting those act.

·She had the power to
declassify information as acting CIA director but did not and declined publicly
to disclose more material about that controversial period of her career.

From Vox a very key part re: is torture and waterboarding effective?
Short answer: No, never, case in point:

From Vox a very key part re: is torture and waterboarding
effective? Short answer: No, never, case in point:

Two of the most brutal
interrogations— that of two suspected al-Qaeda operatives, Abu
Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri — took place at Detention Site Green that
Haspel managed and although there has been much confusion on that point, it now
appears, according to ProPublica (Haspel
oversaw the interrogation) only of the latter.

My 2 Cents: Based on my many years and experience
and training as an interrogator all around the globe, I have said this
constantly and consistently:

She is very poor choice for so many reasons that I
could type all day – suffice it to say just a couple of items background:

Haspel is flat out wrong as well as anyone else who
falsely believes that “torture works and that waterboarding is not torture,”
torture DOES NOT work and yes, waterboarding is torture by any definition. Now
Trump says “we'll do more than waterboard – it works.” No, sir it
does not. Please allow me to demonstrate on you okay?

Haspel's excuse: “I was just following orders.

So, you decide: Is Donald J. Trump wrong or not
about torture and it works and he wants more?

If you support Trump on this issue, then is he on the
verge of advocating a serious war crime in advance? Is he worthy to be our
President? Above the law, um? I see, I see.

The
John Yoo & Jay Bybee memo — 81 pages says in essence that enhanced
enhanced interrogation (buzzword for torture) has OLC's blessings which was
approved by Bush-Cheney, et al in essence changed the law...

Haspel now citing that excuse failed at Nuremberg for
Nazis in 1945, and now fails once again here in 2018. Haspel and all others
were obliged to say no – they should have known the rules and law – not plead
ignorance or the Nazi excuse.

They did not and they should have been brought up on
charges.

This is a total disgrace for our country and it will
not go away – ever.

Stay tuned … see whose side this GOP is really on:
standing for or against torture – that is the test for them.

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Quick
background review for this post: Apparently Mr. Trump thinks no one does
research except him - here is short video:

A simple mistake or another lie added to 3,000 lies to date?

(The answer is simple)

MIAMI (AP) via
Talking Points Memo here — The Pentagon says a prisoner at the Guantanamo
Bay detention center has been sent to his native Saudi Arabia to serve out the
remainder of his sentence.

His name is Ahmed
al-Darbi and he is the first prisoner to leave Gitmo since President Trump took
office.

Al-Darbi is
returning to Saudi Arabia as part of plea deal. He pleaded guilty before a
military commission in 2014 to charges stemming from an attack on a French oil
tanker and he has about nine years left to serve.

The U.S. agreed
to send him to a Saudi rehabilitation program in exchange for what prosecutors
say was “invaluable” testimony against other prisoners held at Guantanamo.

(More on the al-Darbi's value later, I suspect as details are known, so stay tuned for any updates. I will provide updates).

The Pentagon
announced his transfer Wednesday. There are now 40 men still held at
Guantanamo.

1st Major
Update
(as I expected and hoped for) from here– highlights and headline:

“Senate
confirmation fights ahead on Trump's Stateand CIA picks”

Senate Democrats — and some top
Republicans — are slow-walking the process amid fresh questions over the Trump
administration's stance toward Russia and revived inquiries into the CIA's dark
history of torture.

Also, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) announced that
he would oppose both nominees — Mike Pompeo for State and Gina Haspel for CIA —
over their views on waterboarding, which he says: “Sends a terrible message to
the world” — as well as his concerns that Pompeo will advocate for regime
change in Iran that could lead to military action. I want to
do everything I can to block them. This is a debate that's really worth having.”

February 8, 2017: Haspel was appointed by Trump as the Deputy Director
of the CIA.

Several members of the Senate intelligence
committee at that time, urged Trump to reconsider his appointment of Haspel as Deputy
Director, and resistance is expected for her appointment as Director this time as well.For example, Senator Sheldon
Whitehouse (D-RI) quoted colleagues Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen.
Martin Heinrich (D-NM) who were also on the committee by saying:

“I am especially
concerned by reports that this individual was involved in the unauthorized
destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes, which documented the CIA’s use of
torture against two CIA detainees. My colleagues Senators Wyden and Heinrich
have stated that classified information details why the newly appointed Deputy
Director is “unsuitable for the position” and have requested that this
information be declassified. I join their request.”

March 13, 2018: Trump announced via Twitter that he
will nominate Gina Haspel to be the Director of the CIA, which would make
her the first female permanent CIA director. She is now a Deputy Director at
the CIA.

Who is Haspel: Shehas been in
the CIA for 33 years (joined in 1985) – a lot of years of experience for sure,
but what kind of experience – what has been the impact of her experience and
where – in short, what is her record?

One aspect stands out vividly: The way she handled the harsh or so-called “enhanced interrogation
techniques” which is simply a buzzword or euphemism for torture.BTW: Torture
does not work – it is not effective, hell, just ask Sen. John McCain, but don’t
ask Trump or his son Eric Trump, who once said waterboarding is no worse than “what goes on
in a college frat prank”that stupid quote is here. Now this historic example – one of many of high profile torture cases: Declassified
CIA cables specify that Abu Zubaydah was “waterboarded 83 times in one month,
was sleep deprived, was kept in a large box, had his head slammed against a
wall, and he lost his left eye.” Later, Zubaydah was deemed by CIA
interrogators to not be have been or in possession of any useful intelligence.

Note: More on the interrogation
of Abu Zubaydahfrom the FBI Special Agent who first
interrogated Zubaydah – Mr. Ali Soufan – that follows this rundown on Ms. Haspel.

More background on Haspel: As Deputy director of the National Clandestine
Service she had operated the so-called black
site CIA prison located in Thailand in 2002. The site was codenamed “Cat’s
Eye” and it held suspected al-Qaeda members Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaydah for a time.

The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture specifies
that during their detention at the site they were waterboarded and
interrogated using no-longer-authorized methods. Haspel later was the chief of
staff to Jose Rodriguez, who headed the CIA's Counterterrorism Center.
In his memoir, Rodriguez wrote that Haspel had “drafted a cable in 2005
ordering the
destruction of dozens of videotapes made at the
black site in Thailand.” Noteworthy in that regard: Haspel was denied the permanent
CofS position due to the criticism about her involvement in the Rendition,
Detention and Interrogation program.

Mr. Ali Soufan
(Lebanese-American) was a FBI special agent who was part of the original team
that interrogated Abu Zubaydah from March to June 2002 after he was captured in
Pakistan.

That was before the harsh techniques were
introduced in August 2002 by the CIA.

Those techniques
and the flap over the years are due in part to the go-ahead from the Office of
Legal Counsel (OLC) occupied at the time by Jay Bybee and John Yoo, who wrote
the infamous “torture memo” in essence saying harsh interrogation techniques
were okay and authorized, which was precisely what the Bush team wanted them to
say.

Soufan stated that an iterative, rapport-building approach
yielded “important actionable intelligence” including the imminent arrival of JosePadilla, the so-called “dirty bomber” back to the U.S.,but more importantly, it yielded information and the ID and role
of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM), the so-called architect of 9/11.

Soufan also told
anyone who would listen that in his counterterrorism career he has proven time
and time again that traditional interrogation techniques are successful in
identifying operatives, uncovering plots and saving lives; and not harsh
treatment.

Defenders of the
harsh techniques, including water boarding which is illegal, unlawful, and a
war crime, all have claimed that they got Abu Zubaydah to give up information
leading to the capture of Ramzi bin al-Shibh, a top aide to KSM, and American also
interrogated harshly, Jose Padilla.

All that is flatly false.

The information
that led to Shibh’s capture came primarily from a different terrorist operative
who was interviewed using traditional methods.

As for Jose
Padilla, the dates don’t match, e.g., the harsh techniques (so-called enhanced
interrogation) were first approved in the memo of August 2002 – Padilla had
been in May of 2002. That type of BS is part of the larger sell that “torture works”
it does not – never has and never will. Just ask Sen. John McCain and others
who have been tortured… a man will say anything to stop the pain – seldom giving
up valuable info, however.

Related to this
forthcoming realignment:

From Trump: “Keep Gitmo open and full and busy…”

From Trump: “And okay to put Americans in Gitmo, too.”

My 2 cents: From what I have seen and heard and have read about
Mr. Trump regarding all the dismissals, firing, and White House and Cabinet
changes (yeah, the chaos part) I have reached the conclusion that Trump is
acting more and more like a dictator – dismissing people who are not in harmony
all the time with him … he hates those who disagree with him – he wants to be
a “one-man show.”

Take this firing of Tillerson – who found out like Comey did – from a news
flash while overseas in another state who were not directly approached by Trump
to be fired. Apparently Trump has a coward streak about confronting people head
one to fire them. He lets the media (which he says he hates) make the announcement
for him.

Now once again Trump is falling into that same trap with
his stated belief that torture works and is always needs. No, Mr. Trump, it does
not work and it is unlawful, illegal, and a war crime. Advocating that (again)
with these new appointments is truly astonishing.

It is also very obvious
to me that Trump is taking us “Back to the Future” but without a DeLorean and
Doc. Brown. He now seems to be longing for previous illegal and crazy days of
approved torture. Pompeo supports Trump views and stance on torture and most
other policy positions with some sort of blind obedience which seems to be “the
more torture, the merrier”).And, replacing Pompeo with Haspel whose record is
dark and full of torture as outlined above.

This all reminds of the Dick Cheney
days: “We need to operate in the
shadows on the dark side if you will.” (sic). Hence his nickname: “Dark Dick”
is alive and well and I suspect we’ll hear his comments soon on this next White
House shift.

The ones we need to clearly hear about is the Senate who
should vote to turn down Pompeo and Haspel nominations and the sooner the
better. This is in no way good for the country – not one bit.Dark history is
on their side and it’s not pretty.

Stay tuned to watch this new Trump horror show, part
what? I’ve lost track.